Oh Se-hoon Holds Open Debate with 100 Citizens: "Reevaluate All Regulations from the Ground Up"

'Regulation Relief to Revive Livelihood Grand Debate' to Be Held on the 14th
Mayor Oh Directly Plans Event... All Senior Officials of Grade 3 or Higher to Attend
From Absurd and Frustrating Everyday Regulations to Complicated Administrative Procedures

A grand citizen debate on regulatory reform, directly planned by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, will be held. One hundred Seoul citizens will attend and propose regulatory abolitions, and Mayor Oh and his staff will respond immediately in a groundbreaking format. Ahead of the debate, Mayor Oh said, "We will review all regulations from scratch, and if citizens feel inconvenienced, we will change them to create a new Seoul."

On the 13th, Seoul City announced that the 'Regulation Relief to Revive Livelihood Grand Debate' will be held on the 14th at 2 p.m. in the large conference room on the 3rd floor of Seoul City Hall to listen to the voices of Seoul citizens regarding various regulations that make life difficult and suppress economic revitalization, and to find immediate and efficient improvement plans.

Yonhap News

This debate marks the full-scale launch of Mayor Oh’s 100-day regulatory abolition project, declared under the slogan "Change or Die." One hundred Seoul citizens, deputy mayors, and senior officials of grade 3 or higher will all attend to ensure diverse discussions on policy improvement measures.

Before the debate, from the 3rd to the 8th, Seoul City collected regulatory reform ideas through the citizen proposal platform 'Sangsangdaero Seoul.' As a result, a total of 111 proposals for regulatory abolition and 86 new policy ideas were received. Absurd regulations in daily life accounted for the highest citizen participation with 67 cases, followed by ▲ construction, housing, and urban planning with 56 cases ▲ transportation, environment, and safety with 47 cases ▲ small business owners and self-employed sectors with 27 cases.

Looking into the content, the overwhelming majority requested the removal of regulations that cause inconvenience in management or daily life due to complicated administrative procedures or impose restrictions on economic activities. In the 'construction, housing, and urban planning' sector, many improvement demands were made for policies where the side effects outweigh effectiveness due to the normalization of regulations. For example, opinions were expressed regarding unclear review regulations, the broad scope of the architectural committee’s review targets, excessive mandatory direct construction without considering the realities of construction sites, and the designation of extensive land transaction permission zones.

In the 'small business owners and self-employed' sector, there were opinions requesting limited permission for commercial activities within parks to expand sales channels for struggling small business owners. In the 'daily life' sector, citizen convenience-related opinions included expanding existing offline membership registration for toy libraries to online registration and expanding the age range of participants in Seoul City jobs so that people can work based on health and experience even after retirement.

Seoul City plans to prioritize the citizens’ proposals from the debate as the top agenda for regulatory reform and accelerate the process. The remaining period of January will be designated as a special proposal period involving all departments and employees to discover additional unnecessary regulations. Mayor Oh stated, "As important as implementing regulatory abolition is that citizens feel the changes after the abolition. If citizens are blocked by regulatory walls and cannot move forward, suppressing even economic vitality, we will review all regulations from scratch," he warned.